


On the Lake

by SegaBarrett



Category: Evil Dead - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Pre-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 16:03:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7898995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ash is trying to figure out what love is supposed to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Lake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Missy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I don't own Evil Dead (or related movies), and I make no money from this.

People like to say that there’s something beautiful about first love, but that isn’t the right word, exactly.

Ash Williams felt as if there was something deeply uncomfortable about first love, the kind of discomfort that leads people to do random laps around their work place or to the local convenience store, because it’s either sit in it or run somewhere, anywhere, even if it’s only to realize you have no reason to be there.

If Ash had to choose it, he would say that was love – showing up at places you have no good reason to be, only to escape the alternative. 

When he had started at Michigan State, he had told himself he wasn’t going to be one of those guys who got all gooey-hearted because a girl smiled at him. Hell, if he had, Scotty would have roasted him alive. They’d been roommates since that year, after all – Scotty was always telling him how to be the optimum party college guy, and falling in love definitely wasn’t on the list.

Scotty had a girlfriend too, of course – Shelly. At least, she was his current conquest. Scotty never stayed in one place very long when it came to women. It was like he was in one of those old movies where someone had to try to run and keep up with a car – Scotty was the runner and every woman on campus was the car.

Except, of course, for Linda.

When Ash had first met her, he’d taken a while to even mention her to Scotty, even if he wasn’t entirely sure why. He wasn’t sure if it was because Scotty would declare that he’d already dated her (or done something less than that) or because any woman on Scotty’s radar could be a dangerous thing, in a way. 

Scotty had stared at him and said, “Who?”

Ash had had to spend the next five minutes explaining, in somewhat gruesome detail, who Linda is.

Scotty had then shrugged and said, “Yeah, okay.” 

Before moving on to his next conquest. Ash didn’t know whether to feel supported or offended. 

Now, they were planning for the trip of a lifetime – at least, as much of one that could be done on a college student’s budget. Ash was going to tell Linda how he really felt. 

But first he had to figure out the proper gift to go along with that declaration. 

Scotty was, so far, not really being very much help.

“And then she was walking by, and, damn, I got a good look at her and sort of waved, right, and she smiled back at me, and I knew what she was thinking…”  
Ash sighed. He couldn’t even begin to pick up with what Scott was even talking about; all he could hear was the sound of his heart beating in his ears. He was sure that Scott could hear it too, or maybe even the whole store. Maybe there was actually an earthquake going on, caused by his anxiety. It was possible. 

“Okay, Scotty – seriously, calm down. I’m sure she was super hot, but what about Shelly?”

“Yeah, I know, I mean, Shelly is great, but seriously, she leaned in and asked me, can I refill your coffee and I just, whoa, right in the face.”

“She poured the coffee right in your face?” Ash quipped, reaching forward to let his fingers touch a piece of dangling metal. He didn’t know much about necklaces, but somehow he could picture this around Linda’s creamy-white neck, could picture her brushing her hair away to keep it from getting caught. 

“There isn’t any reason to be bitter, just because you get far inferior results.”

“You’re talking about number of people who call the police and say ‘tell him to stop looking in my window’, now?”

Scott snorted.

“Hey, listen, we’ve been talking about getting out of here for months. We need to actually go ahead and do it.”

“Get out of here? And go where? And don’t suggest Detroit again.”

“Detroit was incredibly well-planned out, Ash, you just didn’t have the spontaneous spirit that trip needed. But seriously. We should rent one of those cabins out in the woods. It’d be great.” 

Ash snorted.

“Yeah, well, let me know.” He was still watching the necklace play against the light.

Linda was like that.

***

“Ash!”

Ash looked up, scratching his chin in a manner he hoped was particularly manly, or at least particularly contemplative. What he figured he gave off, however, was particularly itchy.

“Linda… Hey,” he said with a smile, watching as she shook her head at him and waved her finger in protest.

“You haven’t listened to a word I’ve said in the last twenty minutes,” she accused, and he couldn’t help but admit that was true. He had been too busy thinking about the necklace; the necklace and Linda herself, that was. 

“I got distracted… I was… uh, thinking about how beautiful you were.” That was one of those sentences that had seemed a lot better in Ash’s mind then when he went to say it out loud. In his mind, it had been incredibly suave; in reality, it sounded like he was trying to make an accuse for scratching his balls or something.

Linda didn’t seem to care – she let out a giddy, happy laugh.

“Oh really, now?” she asked. “Tell me more about what you were thinking about.”

“Scotty was saying that we should get out to a cabin in the woods for a week. You know, for a vacation.”

Linda chortled.

“A week in the woods getting drunk with Scott? I can’t think of any better way to spend my time! Where do I sign up?”

Ash rolled his eyes.

“Forget about Scott. We won’t even notice him. Think of it as… you know, a romantic getaway. For the two of us.”

“A beautiful time on the lake… Is there a lake? Are we going somewhere that has a lake?”

“I’m not sure. There might be a lake.”

“You haven’t even checked to see if there’s a lake and you want me to go out there?”

Linda leaned in to press a kiss to Ash’s lips, happy and eager, as if saying that she would go anywhere with him, even if it was somewhere stupid.

Ash felt a little voice in his head telling him to give her the necklace now, to not wait, but he pushed it aside. The cabin would be better – maybe there was a lake. Maybe they could sit by it and tell each other things like people said in chick flicks. Linda would like that. Maybe they could even sit in a boat and row it across.

Maybe this was what love was – sitting in a boat on a lake with someone in your mind and being sure of it even when you’re not sure of the lake itself.

Or whether or not you can swim if the boat decides to tip over.

“There’s definitely a lake,” Ash said, firmly, and he leaned in to press his lips to Linda’s.

There wasn’t a lot he was sure of right now. He wasn’t sure of his major or whether he’d even graduate, or why he was friends with Scott half the time, or what the point of his whole life was.

But he was sure that he loved Linda, and he was sure that he’d figure out some way to bring her to a lake in the cabin in the woods.

That was what it was supposed to be all about, after all.


End file.
